Believe
by dharmamonkey
Summary: Booth's Sunday afternoon nap is interrupted by a visitor from his past. Somewhat fluffier than my usual Boothfic.


**Believe**

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**By:** dharmamonkey  
**Rated:** T  
**Disclaimer:** Hart Hanson owns Bones. But people like me who play in his sandbox give you all those little moments that Hart and friends leave out.

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**A/N:** _This is not my usual. I hope you like it anyway._

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I couldn't believe my eyes.

"Mom?" I said to her, my voice hoarse in surprise and disbelief.

She stood near the fireplace, examining the little knick-knacks of wood, horn and copper that Bones had collected in the course of her travels around the world. I smiled wryly and noted that all I had to show for my travels around the world was forty-nine kills, a Combat Infantryman Badge with two stars signifying a second and third award, a Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, and a lot of scars, none of them suitable for display on the mantel over the fireplace.

She looked like I'd remembered when I saw her last—her hair dark and wavy as it fell loosely on her shoulders, and her almond-shaped brown eyes warm as she smiled back at me.

I stared at her, stunned and slack-jawed for several seconds before I stammered, "Umm, Mom...I...uhh...w-what are you doing here?"

"Seeley," she smiled. The way she said my name—the name I seldom heard anymore except from Rebecca, my ex, and, when she's in a teasing mood, my old friend Cam—coated me in comfort, soothing me like warm honey.

I sat up on the couch where I'd been napping, registering the twinge in my lower back with a slight grunt as I ruffled my hand through my messy hair. "You've been...it's...I..." I rubbed my eyes and stared at her for another minute and said, "I miss you, Mom."

"I've been watching you, Seeley," she said, her cheeks round and high as her smile widened and showed her teeth. I'd forgotten about her teeth—how white and perfect they were, and how it made her smile so big and bright, it just took one flash of that grin from her to chase away my little boy worries. She picked up a small, hand-carved water buffalo figurine off the mantel and turned it over in her hand, then gently placed it back where it was.

"You went away," I said quietly, all of a sudden feeling the breathless rush of loss wash over me as I remembered the morning we found her, asleep in her bed, and how afraid I felt when I couldn't wake her up. I was eight years old, old enough to understand that she was gone but unable to understand why this had happened to us.

_"Why did God take Mom away from us?" _I'd asked my father. He never gave us an answer. I remember Bones sitting on the edge of my bed asking me more or less the same question, her face streaked with tears and her voice broken with grief over Vincent. "_Well, if there was a God," _she'd said, _"he would have let Vincent stay here with us."_ My heart broke for her as I told her,_ "That's not how it works."_

"I went away," she said, "but I never left, Seeley." She gave me that sweet smile of hers again, and I felt the dark knot of loss in the pit of my stomach begin to soften. "I've always been here, watching you..."

She cocked her head to the side and waggled her eyebrows the way Bones says I do when I'm trying to be clever or charming (_"As if I really have to try," _I'd replied with a grin).

"And guiding you."

I opened my mouth as I tried to hold back the tears I felt burning in my nose and tingling at the hinge of my jaw.

"I'm proud of you, Seeley," she said to me, pursing her lips almost as if she were blowing me a kiss. "At the man you've become..."

"But..." I blinked and felt a tear loosen and dribble down my cheek. "I've done so many things, Mom," I told her. "So many things...bad things, Mom."

She closed her eyes and shook her head, took a short breath and looked back at me. "You've done things that had to be done, Seeley, but you've done so many good things, the world is a better place with you in it. You've saved lives and changed lives."

I leaned my head back against the arm of the sofa and sighed. "Sometimes it doesn't feel like it," I said grimly.

"You have," she insisted, her voice warm and soft. "And you're a wonderful father, Seeley. Your son and your daughter are lucky to have a father as loving and devoted as you are." There was a shuffling and a clattering outside the front door, and she glanced at the door handle as the deadbolt turned. "You're a terrific dad."

"Daddy!"

The next thing I knew, I felt a small, warm body clamber on top of me and little hands pawing at my belly, pulling on my T-shirt.

"Daddy, Daddy, Daddy," Christine said excitedly as I blinked my eyes open and rubbed the blurriness of sleep out of my eyes. "Back now, Daddy," she told me.

I laughed. "I can see that." Bones set two large tote bags full of groceries on the kitchen counter and gave me a smile. "What did you guys do?" I asked, turning back to my two year-old daughter who had taken up residence between my legs as I still lay sprawled out on the sofa. "Did you buy up the whole store?" I winced a little as my back barked at me, then sat up and let Christine crawl into my lap.

"Gwilcheese, Daddy," she said, reaching her hand up and touching my face, which had three days' worth of stubble on it. I hadn't shaved since Friday morning and it was Sunday afternoon. "Daddy, gwilcheese and tommy soup."

I narrowed my eyes and thumbed through the toddler-to-English dictionary in my head, then nodded and laughed. "Do you want Daddy to make grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch?" I asked her. She nodded enthusiastically. "Then I might need some help."

"I wanna help, Daddy," my daughter said, sitting up in my lap and almost digging her knee into my balls. Holding her snug against my hip, I shifted our positions a little to protect my future virility, then turned around to see how Bones was doing unloading the groceries.

"Would you like to help, too, Bones?" I asked her with a grin. She poked her head out from behind the open refrigerator door.

"No," she said with a chuckle. "I think the two of you are more than capable of handling the lunchtime cooking duties yourselves."

I tousled my daughter's silky, wavy blond hair. "Guess it's just you and me, kiddo," I told her. Christine climbed off my lap and ran out of the room into the kitchen. As I stood up from the sofa, I scratched the back of my head and stared at the fireplace mantel for a minute, my eyes falling on the hand-carved water buffalo that sat on the right side nearest the edge.

"Daddy! Daddy!" came the call from the kitchen.

I shook myself from my little daze and made my way into the kitchen. With Christine tugging at the leg of my sweats, I leaned in and gave Bones a quick kiss, holding her lower lip between mine for just a second as I palmed the slight round of her belly.

"You doin' alright there, Mommy?" I asked her with a smile.

"Mmm-hmm," she replied with a twinkle in her eye as she set a block of American cheese on the counter. "Almost perfect." After a moment of pause, she asked me, "How about you?"

"Livin' the dream, baby," I said with an exaggerated Philly accent as I pulled her in for another kiss.

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A/N: _So there you have it. I woke up with this little drabble in my head, and banged it out this morning._

_Please, tell me what you thought of that. It wasn't much, I know, but the muse delivered it, and I decided to share._

_Let me know what you think. Keep my muse motivated :-) Leave a review._

_And thanks for reading._


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